Tech Tip: V-Brake Arm Lengths

Despite their age, our articles on v-brakes and v-brake conversions remain very popular with GRAVELBIKE’s readers. To help folks determine whether a certain brake will clear their bikes’ fenders or fat tires, we’ve compiled a list of popular v-brakes’ arm lengths (the list will be updated as new information becomes available).

I’ve used Paul’s MiniMotos with various levers (Campy, Shimano) without any issues. This illustrates that performance is often influenced by factors such as brake boss spacing, rim width, brake reach, etc.

In my experience, most modern integrated brake/shift levers will work with 80-85mm brake arms. Longer arms (90-95mm) generally perform better with levers that pull slightly more cable, such as Shimano’s 5700 and 6700. For anything longer, you’ll generally need v-specific levers such as those offered by Cane Creek, Gevenalle (aka, Retroshift), or Tektro.

Really useful information, thank you much! But…..you don’t provide a diagram or indication what the measurement, precisely is of. That is, are you measuring from the center of the mounting bolt to the noodle insertion? Or from the center of the brake pad boss to the noodle insertion (I would think the former). It may be obvious, but ambiguity like this makes a useful article MUCH less useful. Could you indicate in a few words what you are measuring? Thank you!